PESHAWAR, July 25: Flaws in rules and regulations of the Pakistan Forest Institute (PFI), Peshawar, are an obstacle to the functioning and development of this premier research centre of the country.
Information gathered by Dawn revealed that the institute had been functioning without a director-general for 10 years, while about 56 posts in various grades have been lying vacant for many years.
According to PFI officials, staff shortage and financial constraints have affected the quality of teaching and research at the centre. However, an official of the federal ministry of environment, Islamabad, said that internal politics, nepotism and poor leadership had turned the institution into a ghost house.
The PFI graduation ceremony used to be a high-profile event, but for the last seven years no such function had been held, he added. The situation has become so pathetic that Class-V employees are now working as field officers, which shows the prevailing state of affairs at the centre.
Talking to Dawn from Islamabad by phone, Deputy Inspector Forest Syed Mehmood said that the federal environment ministry was trying to amend the rules to restore the past glory of the centre.
The PFI, the second largest centre in forestry sciences in South Asia after the Dera Dun Forest Institute in India, was established in 1947 to meet the research needs of the country. At present, India has 20 forest institutions and a number of research centres.
The PFI was initially established in Karachi. Later, it was shifted to Faisalabad and then to Abbottabad. Finally, it was set up in Peshawar in 1966 and its campus was established on the Peshawar University premises.
Students and researchers from across the country as well as from South Asia and Africa used to enrol at the PFI for research and graduation in forestry sciences. Now, foreign students have stopped getting admission due to the prevailing situation.
Officials said according to the PFI rules 50 per cent of teaching staff and researchers should be recruited on open merit, while the rest could be hired on quota basis.
Out of the 50 per cent reserved seats for teaching staff, Punjab has 50 per cent share, Sindh 19 per cent, NWFP 11.5 per cent, Balochistan 3.5 per cent, while the share of Northern Areas and Azad Jammu and Kashmir is four and two per cent.
Sindh and Balochistan seats mostly remained vacant as the appointees from the two provinces seldom bothered to join the institute, an official claimed, saying that the seats could not be filled with other candidates as the rules and regulations did not allow other candidates to be considered for these posts.
A break-up of the vacant posts show that three posts of BPS-19, 11 of BPS-18, 32 of BPS-17 and 10 of BPS-16 are lying vacant at present, while some of the senior teachers and researchers were nearing retirement which makes the situation more grim.
The post of the director-general, a grade-20 job, has also been lying vacant for the last 10 years and a senior teacher has been granted its additional charge. Sources in the PFI said the Federal Public Service Commission had been requested for staff recruitment on various occasions but nothing had been done.
The situation worsens also due to differences among the staff and promotion of certain staff members had been challenged by their colleagues with the services tribunal.
Officials at the ministry of environment said the existing rules and regulations were a major hurdle in the recruitment of qualified staff to boost research activities and save the institute from total collapse.
The rules for the appointment of director-general state that the candidate must have at least 17 years experience in teaching and forestry sector. But the criteria was very difficult to meet, the officials said, adding that rules also did not permit making direct appointment against the post or bring some efficient official on deputation to run the institute.
